Rebooting Your Writing Journey: Embracing Your Gift
True story:
Yesterday, I told someone that I may be done with writing books. I told her the marketing is hard and that it’s killing me. The marketing requires so much, I told her. You’re supposed to be writing your next thing, but you’re too busy marketing that you can’t write anything new. It takes its toll. You feel exhausted. You feel like what you write is not being seen, so…why bother?
She listened intently, and then said.
No. No.
You’re too talented not to write. That is a waste, she said.
You just need to reboot. Find another avenue.
But don’t waste your stories. There are people who need them.
It was, if I may be so bold to say it about myself, selfish of me to wallow in the murk. I was only thinking about myself. How I’m tired. How I’m struggling to get something out of it.
But she made me see it in a different way.
It’s your gift to others. That’s what she said.
I tell this story because I’m about to turn sixty and I’m feeling a little down in the dumps about everything at the moment. It’s a moment of realness…and a time to reflect on what I’ve done over these last decades.
But, it is said, that when you don’t use your gifts, you are not appreciating that gift which has been given to you by God. We all have them. We all have gifts. So it made me wonder, why would I not continue to work at it, even if it’s hard?
I’ve never been a defeatist in the past, so why start now?
It is our job to toil away at these gifts, even if it has taken us thirteen years of our lives working hard to share them with the world. If Moses can wander in the wilderness for 40 years until something good happens, what’s a few more years giving my energy to this craft and…marketing.
That’s today’s thoughts. Let’s see where we land months from now and if I can pick myself up from all the weariness.
xx,
Stephanie
About the author:
STEPHANIE VERNI is the author of THE ONES CLOSEST TO YOU, THE LETTERS IN THE BOOKS; FROM HUMBUG TO HUMBLE: THE TRANSFORMATION OF EBENEZER SCROOGE; BENEATH THE MIMOSA TREE; INN SIGNIFICANT; LITTLE MILESTONES; THE POSTCARD; and ANNA IN TUSCANY. She is also a co-author of the textbook, EVENT PLANNING & MANAGEMENT: COMMUNICATING THEORY & PRACTICE. Currently an adjunct professor at Stevenson University Online, she instructs communication courses for undergraduate and graduate students. She and her husband reside in Severna Park, Maryland, just outside Annapolis, have two children, and a little boat that makes them immensely happy.
